Mata Hari

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (7 August 1876-15 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who worked as a German spy during World War I, leading to her execution by France.

Biography
Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands in 1876, and she worked as a nightclub dancer in Paris, France from 1903, having countless affairs with French officers and government officials. During World War I, she worked as a spy for both France and Germany, and Walter Nicolai, the chief intelligence officer of the Imperial German Army, exposed her as a German spy to the French due to his annoyance with her reports on the sex lives of French politicians and generals instead of military matters. She was arrested by the French in 1917 and charged with passing on secrets to the Germans, and was subsequently convicted and executed by firing squad on 15 October 1917 at the age of 41.